Serving tray construction with adjustable clamp means

ABSTRACT

Presented is a serving tray incorporating novel clamp means enabling clamping of the serving tray to a suitable support such as a person&#39;&#39;s lap or to the arm of a chair.

United States Patent mi Kidd i451 Jan.9, 1973 2,844,429 7/1958 Frey 108/43 [54] SERVING TRAY CONSTRUCTION Y WITH ADJUSTABLE CLAMP MEANS 3,185,113 5/1965 `Nathan et al ms/47 [76] Inventor: Mathew Kidd, 21261 Rolling Hills FOREIGN PATENTS 0R APPLICATIONS Road, Cupertino, Calif. 95014 643,301 9/1950 Great Britain ..108/47 [221 Filed? March 29 1971 5,383 i914 Great Britain 10s/19 [21] APPL Nm 128,971 1,087,921l 3/1955 France 10s/19 Primary Examiner- Bobby R. Gay [52] U.S. Cl. ..108/43` Assistant Examner G|enn O Finch [5l] Int. Cl. ..A47b 23/00 Att0mey john L Leavitt [58] Field of Search ..108/17-20, 42-49 [56] References Cited [57] ABSTRACT Presented is a serving tray incorporating novel clamp UNITED STATES PATENTS means enabling clamping of the serving tray to a suita- 2,62l,095 12/1952 Haumerson ..108/19 ble Support such as a persons lap or to the arm of a 2,697,018 12/1954 Georgides chair. I 2,783,109 2/1957 Frey 2,797,973 7/ 1957 Culpepper ..108/43 X 8 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures L I" CF1- i, 4 ,f 4m -f'ji ,i 9 4i /rs '.f i 36 it t /y- L- i ,'36 /f i 1 ze l I ,f i en, i i i i g .fm-i

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PATENTEDJAN 9 |915 PATENTEDJM 'I 9 |975 SHEU 2 F 2 INVENTOR MATTHEW KIDD SERVING TRAY CONSTRUCTION WITH ADJUSTABLE CLAMP MEANS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION lt is frequently necessary when entertaining to serve guests a variety of foods and liquid refreshments wherever they may be sitting. Accordingly, it is one of the objects of the present lightweight, yet reliable serving tray on which containers of such foods and liquid refreshments may be served and supported while being consumed.

Serving trays capable of being attached to the person are conventional. Most such serving trays, however, embody a complicated clamping mechanism difficult to manipulate, particularly after containers of food or liquid refreshments have been placed on the tray. Accordingly, it is another object of my invention to provide a serving tray having clamp means conveniently manipulated to effect clamping of the tray on a supporting structure or person.

Most conventional serving trays, because of complexities embodied in the clamp means, are expensive to manufacture and are, therefore, prohibitive in cost. Accordingly, it is a still further object of the invention to provide a serving tray having a simplified clamp means effective to support the tray yet economical to fabricate and assemble, thus reducing the ultimate cost of the serving tray to the consumer.

The invention possesses other objects and features of advantage, some of which, with the foregoing, will be apparent from the following description and the drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the embodiment illustrated and described, as it may be embodied in various forms within the scope of the appended claims. i

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION ln terms of broad inclusion, the serving tray comprises a generally flat and rectangular structure having peripheral flanges extending on opposite sides of the surface of the tray. The flange projecting below the tray bottom is utilized to confine a longitudinally extending support rod medianly disposed below the tray. Slidably mounted on the support rod are a pair of anchor brackets adapted to slide on the rod from one associated end of the tray toward the other. Each of the anchor brackets is utilized to pivotally support a clamp arm resiliently biased into a position of disuse by an apinvention to provide a l propriate coil spring anchored at one end in the anchor bracket and impinging at its upper end on the clamp arm. When the clamp arms are pivoted into a position of use, the resilient bias imposed by the springs is increased to retain the tray clamped in position.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS FIG. 6 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view taken in the plane indicated by the line 6-6 in FIG. 7.

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary vertical cross-sectional view taken in the plane indicated by the lines 7-7 in FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view illustrating a keeper used in conjunction with the saddle formed on the underside of the tray to lock the anchor rod in position.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of one of the clamp arms shown apart from the rest of the structure. A portion of the clamp arm is broken away to better reveal its configuration.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In terms of greater detail, the serving tray of the invention comprises a tray body designated generally by the numeral 2, and including a flat plate portion 3, having a top surface 4 and a bottom surface 6. The outer periphery of the plate portion is provided with a peripheral rim 7 extending upwardly from the top surface of the plate, and with a downwardly extending flange 8, illustrated in the drawings as being continuous around the bottom surface of the plate. In appropriate circumstances, rather than have a continuous flange 8 surrounding the bottom surface of the plateQthe flanges 8 maybe two opposed flanges at opposite ends of the tray. The lateral sides of the plate would be devoid of a downwardly extending flange with this alternative construction. Preferably, however, the flange 8 is continuous around the tray, to thus lend added rigidity to the tray. I

As indicated in FIGS. 1 and 2, the tray is preferably rectangular in configuration, each of the corner portions on the underside thereof being provided with a short leg 9 positioned so that when one tray is stacked upon another, the legs nest more or less snugly in the corners formed by the peripheral rim 7 and the top surface of the plate so that one tray has only limited movement in a transverse direction in relation to a tray on which it is supported.

Also formed on the underside of the plate at a point midway between the lateral edges of the plate, are a pair of oppositely disposed and raxially aligned saddle pads 12, each pad formed with a semi-cylindrical groove 13 therein, and a pair of downwardly projecting flanges 14 the inner surfaces 16 of which are convergent as shown in FIG. 6. The saddle pads are preferably integral with the underside of the plate, and each is also integral with the associated downwardly depending flange 8.

The semi-cylindrical grooves formed in the saddle pads are axially aligned, and serve to cradle the op posite end portions of an anchor rod 17 extending the length of the tray and disposed medianly between the lateral edges thereof. The anchor rod lies spaced below the bottom surface of the plate, and is retained in the saddle pads by a keeper 18 (FIG. 8) formed with a groove 19 proportioned to conform to the anchor rod and providedalso with lateral side surfaces 2l proportioned and configured to complement the convergent surfaces 16 of the flanges 14 formed on each saddle pad. As shown in FIG. 7 in broken lines, the keeper is first nestled against the underside of the support rod and is then moved longitudinally along the rod until it snugly lies caught between the convergent surfaces 16 of flanges 14 of saddle pad l2. Preferably, the side surfaces 2l and upper surfaces 22 of the keeper are coated i capable of being displaced in any direction.

Slidably supported on the anchor rod is an anchor bracket designated generally by the numeral 26. The anchor bracket is box-like in its configuration, having a top wall 27, a rear wall 28, and end walls constituting downwardly depending bearing lugs 29. The bearing lugs are spaced apart on opposite sides of the support rod, and are apertured as shown to receive a pivot pin 3l therethrough retained in position on the lugs by appropriate nuts 32. Concentrically disposed about the pivot pin, is a coil spring 33, one end 34 of which is anchored in boss 36 formed in b ack wall 28 of the anchor bracket. The other end 37 of the spring (FIGS. 2 and 4) resiliently abuts flat surface 38 of web 39 on associated clamp means designated generally by the numerals 41 and 41a as shown in FIGS. 2and 9.

The clamp means comprises two pairs of spaced parallel arms 42 and 43, joined adjacent one end by a web- 44 to provide rigidity between the two arms. As illustrated in FIG. 9, the webs 39 and 44 are integral one with another along two associated edges, and at opposite ends merge integrally with the side members 46, each of which, at one end is formed to provide a lug 47 apertured as at 48 to receive the ends of the pivot pin as illustrated in FIG. 5. When necessary or preferred, each of the arms 42 and 43 is provided with a relatively wide surface 49 formed with small protrusions 5l to increase the frictional purchase of the clamp arms on an associated support such as a person s leg or the arm ofa chair or sofa.

lAs illustrated in FIG. 2, the clamp means 41 and 41a bearing lugs of each said anchor bracket and resiliently biased in a clamping direction. 2. The combination according to claim 1, in which said -tray body is provided with a peri heral flange extending below the bottom side thereo at opposite ends of said anchor rod, said peripheral flanges extending are generally similar in construction and configuration,

lapsed condition as illustrated in FIG. 3, the arms 42 and v43 of the clamp means 4l may be slipped between lthe corresponding clamp arms ofthe clamp means 41a.

In this manner, the clamp arms may be brought into close Ajuxtaposition even when in collapsed condition prior to opening or extension thereof into a position of use.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed to be novel and sought to be protected by letters patent is as follows:

1. A serving tray adapted to be detachably clamped to a supporting structure comprising:

a. a tray body having top and bottom sides;

b. a single anchor rod fixed to the bottom side of said tray body and extending longitudinally thereunder along a median plane;

c. anchor brackets slidably disposed on said single anchor rod, each said anchor bracket including end walls constituting a pair of spaced bearing lugs l spaced apart on opposite sides of said anchor; and

d. clamp means pivotally supported on thespaced below said anchor rod and limiting axial displacement of said anchor rod in relation to the tray.

3. The combination according to claim l, in which saddle means are provided on the bottom side of said tray body, said anchor rod lies cradled within said saddle means, and keeper means are provided associated with said anchor rod and saddle means to lock said anchor rod in position below said tray body.

4. The combination according to claim l, in which flange means are provided extending belowrthe bottom side of said tray body at opposite ends of said tray, and said anchor rod is proportioned in length to fit snugly between said flange means.

5. The combination according to claim l, in which each said anchor bracket includes a centrally disposed lug bored tol Slidably receive said anchor rod, and is provided with a plurality of lateral extensions slidably engaging said tray bottom to provide three point stability of said anchor bracket on the anchor rod and tray bottom.

6. The Combination according to claim 1, in which said clamp means is pivotally mounted on said anchor bracket for selective manipulation from a position of disuse in which the clamp means lie resiliently pressed against the bottom side of said tray body in substantialparallelism thereto to a position of use substantially perpendicular to said tray-bottom in which said clamp means are resiliently biased in a clamping direction.

v7. The combination according to claim 1, in which said clamp means includes two pairs of mutually extending spaced and parallel arms adjacent opposite ends of the tray body, each pair of spaced arms being pivotally mounted on an associated anchor bracket, one of said pair of spaced arms being proportioned to nest within the other pair of vspaced arms when said clamp means are in position of disuse.

8. A serving trayadapted to be detachably clamped to a supporting Vstructure comprising:

a. a tray body'having top and bottom sides;

b. an anchor rod fixed to the bottom `side of said tray body and extending longitudinally thereunder along a median plane;

c. anchor brackets slidablydisposed on said anchor rod, each said anchor bracket including a pair of spaced bearing lugs on opposite ends of the anchor brackets; y

. a pivot pin carried by said bearing lugs;

e. a coil spring concentricall'y disposed about said pivot pin between said lugs and having one end thereof` anchored to said anchor bracket and the other endy thereof resiliently abutting said clamp means; and 'v f. clamp means, supported onv eachA said anchor bracket and resiliently biased in a clamping direction. 

1. A serving tray adapted to be detachably clamped to a supporting structure comprising: a. a tray body having top and bottom sides; b. a single anchor rod fixed to the bottom side of said tray body and extending longitudinally thereunder along a median plane; c. anchor brackets slidably disposed on said single anchor rod, each said anchor bracket including end walls constituting a pair of spaced bearing lugs spaced apart on opposite sides of said anchor; and d. clamp means pivotally supported on the spaced bearing lugs of each said anchor bracket and resiliently biased in a clamping direction.
 2. The combination according to claim 1, in which said tray body is provided with a peripheral flange extending below the bottom side thereof at opposite ends of said anchor rod, said peripheral flanges extending below said anchor rod and limiting axial displacement of said anchor rod in relation to the tray.
 3. The combination according to claim 1, in which saddle means are provided on the bottom side of said tray body, said anchor rod lies cradled within said saddle means, and keeper means are provided associated with said anchor rod and saddle means to lock said anchor rod in position below said tray body.
 4. The combination according to claim 1, in which flange means are provided extending below the bottom side of said tray body at opposite ends of said tray, and said anchor rod is proportioned in length to fit snugly between said flange means.
 5. The combination according to claim 1, in which each said anchor bracket includes a centrally disposed lug bored to slidably receive said anchor rod, and is provided with a plurality of lateral extensions slidably engaging said tray bottom to provide three point stability of said anchor bracket on the anchor rod and tray bottom.
 6. The combination according to claim 1, in which said clamp means is pivotally mounted on said anchor bracket for selective manipulation from a position of disuse in which the clamp means lie resiliently pressed against the bottom side of said tray body in substantial parallelism thereto to a position of use substantially perpendicular to said tray bottom in which sAid clamp means are resiliently biased in a clamping direction.
 7. The combination according to claim 1, in which said clamp means includes two pairs of mutually extending spaced and parallel arms adjacent opposite ends of the tray body, each pair of spaced arms being pivotally mounted on an associated anchor bracket, one of said pair of spaced arms being proportioned to nest within the other pair of spaced arms when said clamp means are in position of disuse.
 8. A serving tray adapted to be detachably clamped to a supporting structure comprising: a. a tray body having top and bottom sides; b. an anchor rod fixed to the bottom side of said tray body and extending longitudinally thereunder along a median plane; c. anchor brackets slidably disposed on said anchor rod, each said anchor bracket including a pair of spaced bearing lugs on opposite ends of the anchor brackets; d. a pivot pin carried by said bearing lugs; e. a coil spring concentrically disposed about said pivot pin between said lugs and having one end thereof anchored to said anchor bracket and the other end thereof resiliently abutting said clamp means; and f. clamp means supported on each said anchor bracket and resiliently biased in a clamping direction. 